


Intrigued [Working Title]

by MikazukiMunechika305



Category: Keyakizaka46 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-06-26 12:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15663534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: {Her homeroom teacher had given up telling Manaka to take off her headphones long ago, but this time, when she read the wordsWatanabe Risaoon the board, Manaka willingly paused the music (even though she kept her headphones on), wanting to hear what was going on.}There was something off about the new student in her class, and Manaka was intrigued. But she never expected all the things that came with being friends with "Risao."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to post a MonaRisa fic for a while now, so here we go... I hope you enjoy!

The music from her blue headphones loud in her ears, Manaka was thrumming her fingers on the desk in front of her. Her eyes were closed and she was ignoring her fellow students, unwilling to talk to them more than she had to. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that their homeroom teacher had already entered the room and was writing something on the board.

He had given up telling Manaka to take off her headphones long ago, but this time, when she read the words _Watanabe_ _Risao_ on the board, Manaka willingly paused the music (even though she kept her headphones on), wanting to hear what was going on.

After the teacher, another person entered the classroom and Manaka instinctively sat up a bit straighter, trying to figure out whether the person was a girl or a boy. Their face had feminine features, but they were wearing a boy’s school uniform—subconsciously, Manaka remembered that their school, which had formerly been a girls-only school, had opened its gates for male students starting from this year.

“It’s nice to meet everyone, my name is Watanabe Risao,” the new student introduced himself. “Seems like I’m the first male student to enroll in this school. I hope we’ll all get along.”

Even through her headphones and her classmates’ excited muttering about Risao’s handsomeness, Manaka could hear that Risao’s voice wasn’t exactly what she had expected from a boy her age. It was much softer and, like his face, somewhat feminine—but she decided not to ask any questions before she had found any proof for her assumption. If she ended up making a fool of herself now, it would just cause her even more trouble than she already had.

The teacher had Risao sit at a desk right in front of Manaka, and the transfer student gave her a brief nod to greet her as he sat down. Manaka returned the nod in silence and switched her music back on when the lesson started.

When the bell rang, announcing the beginning of the lunch break, Manaka got up to head to the school building’s roof where she always ate by herself. From her peripheral vision, she saw Risao getting up and following her, but she decided not to show any kind of reaction and just see what the boy would do.

Risao stepped out on the roof after Manaka, but he didn’t try to talk to her. Instead, a few girls who were already sitting on the roof jumped to their feet, abandoning their food to talk to Risao.

“Wow, you’re super handsome!”

“Are you new at this school? What’s your name?”

“Right, you must be the first male student here!”

Risao flinched slightly when all of them started talking at once and glanced over at Manaka as if he was asking for help, but she just raised an eyebrow in a somewhat challenging way, making the transfer student let out a brief sigh. “I’m Watanabe Risao,” he said, trying to make his way over to an empty bench. “But, could you let me eat now?”

Of course, the girls ignored him. “Risao-kun, huh? How do you like our school so far?”

“It’s nice.”

“Have you found someone you like yet?” one of the girls asked eagerly; that question made Risao sputter a bit.

“I—no, I just arrived here after all, I don’t know anyone yet—”

From her spot near the edge of the roof, Manaka watched her new classmate with a small amused smile. He seemed to grow more uncomfortable with each question the girls asked, and finally, she decided to do him a favor.

Manaka got up, slid her headphones off her ears so they hung around her neck, and pushed two of the girls aside to make her way to Risao’s side. Putting on a smile, she took his wrist and started pulling him towards the edge of the roof slowly. “If you’d excuse us; Risao-kun needs to eat, too, after all,” she told the other girls with a hint of annoyance in her voice, and they reluctantly stepped aside to make way for them.

Risao followed Manaka with a surprised expression and stared at her when she sat down again, leaning against the metal fence that bordered the roof. “Shida-san—”

But Manaka didn’t even look up at him anymore. “Don’t think I did this because I like you, Watanabe,” she shrugged, putting on her headphones again. “I just didn’t want to deal with you being hungry later.” With that, she switched her music back on, blending out whatever was happening around her.

After a moment of silence, Risao sat down next to her and they ate in silence, mainly ignoring each other. When she was done, Manaka headed back down first and left Risao alone on the roof.

 

* * *

 

A few weeks passed like that; the two of them barely talked during classes and only interacted when they had to, but Manaka occasionally helped her new classmate out when she considered it necessary. During that time, she only got more convinced that there was something off about Watanabe Risao.

One day, after school when all their classmates had already left, she took off her headphones, leaned forward, and tapped Risao’s shoulder. “Hey, Watanabe.”

He turned around to her, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Can we talk for a bit? There’s something I want to confirm.” Manaka got up and walked around Risao until she could lean onto his desk to look into his eyes. “You’re not really a boy, right?”

Risao simply stared at her with wide eyes for a moment.

“I’ve been thinking there’s something off about you,” Manaka continued. “You’re too feminine. Your voice, your face, _everything_. So, am I right?”

Finally, Risao nodded, turning her head away. “…don’t tell anyone.”

Manaka raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Nobody was supposed to find out. I didn’t think _you’d_ be the first one to figure it out, either, considering how you…” She trailed off when Manaka slapped her arm gently.

“Shut up, I can observe people, too. I just don’t care about most of them enough to do it.”

“So I’m special.” There was a slightly teasing tone in Risao’s voice, and Manaka rolled her eyes.

“You’re not,” she lied. “So, anyways, what’s your name? Risao sounds a bit too boyish to be your actual name.”

Risao sighed. “It’s pretty close, though. My real name is Risa.”

“It suits you.” The words had left Manaka’s mouth before she could even think about them. “Why are you doing this? Do you actually enjoy pretending to be a boy?”

Risa started shaking her head, but then stopped herself. “I can’t talk about that, sorry.”

Manaka pursed her lips slightly. “Fine… then, I’ll keep this a secret. But in exchange, let’s spend some time together sometimes.”

“Are you trying to blackmail me?” Risa raised an eyebrow a little skeptically.

“Of course not! I’ll keep it a secret even if you don’t agree, there’s no merit for me in the others knowing what’s wrong with you. And it’s not like I’m one of those crazy girls who want to date you. I just… I guess everyone needs at least one friend, huh?”

Risa remained silent for a few moments. Then, a tiny smile spread on her lips. “You’re pretty different from how I thought you’d be. You’re always so silent, you never talk to anyone…”

“There’s nobody to talk to,” Manaka shrugged. “Anyways, I’m not interested in a boyfriend. Or girlfriend, for that matter. So you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Then… in that case, I guess it’s fine.” Risa nodded briefly. “I don’t mind spending time with you every once in a while. You’re better than the other girls after all.”

Manaka grinned slightly. “That’s good to hear.”

 

* * *

 

On the next day, Manaka willingly took off her headphones when Risa entered the classroom. They greeted each other with a high five and talked about some trivial things until class started, while their female classmates were staring at Manaka jealously.

When class started, Manaka put her headphones back on and stared out of the window, only to find Risa slamming a few sheets of paper down on her desk as soon as the lesson was over. “Here you go.”

“E-eh, Risao?” Surprised, Manaka slipped her headphones off her ears as she looked up at the older girl.

“My notes from class. You can copy them.”

“No, seriously, you don’t have to do that… I’m fine with not paying attention, I’ve always been.”

Risa took the sheets and nearly punched her new friend during the process of thrusting them right in front of Manaka’s face. “Just take them, okay?”

A bit hesitantly, Manaka obeyed and put the sheets in her bag. “Um, in that case… thanks, I guess.”

“It’s fine.”

Around them, the other girls started muttering among themselves jealously, and one of them even stepped forward and spoke up, “Hey, Risao-kun~, can you take notes for me too, next time?”

Risa simply stared at her for a moment, then she shook her head and picked up her bento box to head to the roof for lunch.

She was immediately followed by their other classmates while this time, Manaka stayed behind in the classroom and put her headphones back on, looking down at her bag in slight irritation. She definitely hadn’t expected Risa to start doing something like this for her.

After that, rumors started spreading at school. Whenever Manaka and Risa talked, other girls would try to sneak in between them and find out about their relationship. There was even a time where they cornered Manaka in the girls’ restroom on the first floor of the school building to question her about this—their plan resulted in Manaka climbing out of the window in order to flee from them, which was only possible because there was a huge tree right in front of the window that had branches strong enough to carry her weight.

Coincidentally, Risa had been sitting under that particular tree and learning for a test at exactly that time, so it was a huge shock to her when Manaka suddenly dropped to the ground next to her because she’d slipped while climbing down the tree.

Manaka had just stayed as she was for a moment, lying on her back and staring up at the tree in silence, until Risa had leaned down to check on her worriedly. When the older girl started yelling at her—something along the lines of _Don’t do something so stupid again!_ and _What if you just broke a bone or something?!_ —Manaka broke into a fit of laughter that didn’t cease even when Risa punched her ribs a bit harder than necessary.

Risa huffed and turned away demonstratively, picking up the book she’d been using to study again. “You’re so stupid,” she muttered under her breath, and Manaka slowly sat up as her laughter finally died down.

Despite that, she still had a grin on her face when she scooted a bit closer to Risa to peek over her friend’s shoulder. “Aw, were you worried about me?”

“Of course I wasn’t. It wouldn’t have mattered if you’d died.”

Manaka couldn’t hold back another laugh and nudged Risa’s shoulder playfully. “Nice to hear that. But don’t worry, I’m not hurt. I was, like, right above the ground when I slipped, so I didn’t fall far.”

“What were you doing anyways?”

“Running away. Some of the other girls cornered me in the restroom to ask me about our relationship, and I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Risa gave her a small nod to show that she understood, but didn’t look up from her book.

Manaka didn’t care about the rumors. She’d never had many friends in this school, so she was glad to at least have Risa now. Calling the other girl by her fake name at school proved to be no problem either because she had been doing that for the past weeks anyways, so she had no trouble in keeping Risa’s true identity a secret.

* * *

 

Like that, a few more weeks passed and the two of them became close friends. They exchanged LINE IDs and met up after school occasionally.

Until Manaka one day received a message from Risa.

**Risa:** _I’m skipping school today, so don’t wait for me._

When she read that, she raised an eyebrow. Risa had never skipped school before; Manaka had thought that was her own way of solving problems. But still, she quickly typed a reply that she sent back to Risa.

**You:** _Seriously? What are you gonna do instead?_

**Risa:** _Don’t know. Why?_

 **You:** _Let’s meet up._

For a few moments, there was no reply from Risa, and Manaka wondered if the other girl had read her message at all. But then, she heard the familiar _ping_ of an incoming message through her headphones.

 **Risa:** _Fine. At the train station near the arcade?_

 **You:** _Sure._

Manaka put her phone back into her pocket and left the schoolyard again, heading back to the train station near the school. She took the next train to the station near the arcade that she and Risa sometimes visited, and looked around for her friend once she’d gotten off the train.

She nearly would not have recognized Risa. The other girl was wearing a simple dress instead of her usual boyish clothes, and there was a pin in her hair to keep it out of her face.

“Eh, Risa? Is that really you?” Manaka exclaimed in disbelief as she approached her friend. “You look so different today.”

Risa’s smile seemed somewhat forced as she nodded, but apparently she was trying hard to hide what she was really feeling.

Still, Manaka noticed that something was off. “What’s wrong, Risa? I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Risa murmured, and Manaka obeyed.

They entered the arcade and headed to a somewhat secluded area with a few tables and chairs. Manaka sat down and motioned for Risa to do the same.

Then, Risa reluctantly spoke up. “I think I owe you an explanation.”

Manaka raised an eyebrow; she didn't think that at all. “What? Why that?”

“When you figured out that I'm a girl, you asked why I was pretending to be a boy.”

“Oh, _that_ … you don't have to—”

Risa looked away, but interrupted Manaka. “It's not like I'm doing it for fun. I need to do it, for my family.”

“... _what_?”

“...you know that my last name is Watanabe, right? I'm the daughter of the owner of _that_ Watanabe Enterprise.” It sounded like Risa was confessing to a crime, and Manaka didn't like the sound of that at all.

Quickly, she tried to show Risa that where she came from didn't matter to her. “So what? You're still my friend, even if you're one of those rich people.”

Risa managed a weak smile. “Thanks. Anyways… I have a twin brother, Risao. He was supposed to take over the company; I was always just an extra, my family never liked me that much. It didn't matter to me because at least I was mostly free from all the boring responsibilities… but a few months ago, Risao ran away.”

Manaka looked at her friend in silence when she realized what that meant. Risa was not only rich, but also pretending to be her own brother. And maybe, since there had to be a reason why Risa was bringing on this serious talk _now_ of all times, Manaka was going to lose her soon.

“They made me pretend to be him because apparently, not having a male heir is a horrible thing for my parents,” Risa continued bitterly. “And today, they told me that they've been looking for a bride for Risao… well, for _me_. I'm supposed to meet her tomorrow afternoon.”

For a moment, Manaka could only stare at her friend in shock. “You're… seriously gonna get married? Do you even want that?”

Risa shook her head in silence.

“...do you think they'd call off the engagement if you introduced your girlfriend to them today?” Manaka mumbled, a little nervous.

Skeptically, Risa raised an eyebrow. “I don't have a girlfriend— _oh_.” She thought about it for a moment and then asked, “You'd do that for me?”

“Well, if not me, who else would do it? Besides, we'd probably never see each other again if you got married to some weird, rich girl, right?” Manaka tried to play it off as a problem based purely on their platonic friendship. She was definitely _not_ jealous because some other girl was going to marry Risa.

The other girl managed a weak smile. “Thanks. We can try it, but… no offense, but we'll need to make you look like you're at least as rich as we are. They won't accept anyone ‘below our standards.’”

Manaka got up, grinning. “Then let's go shopping. I needed new clothes anyways.”

She had been planning to buy the clothes herself, but once she'd picked something that Risa considered worthy of a rich girl, Manaka realized that her friend insisted on paying for her.

“No, Risa, you don't need to…”

“Yes, I do.” Risa took the clothes from Manaka's hands and went to the register to pay. When she was done, she gave her friend the clothes back and pushed her into the changing room. “You should put them on already.”

Manaka obeyed and put her own clothes into the bag given to them by the store. When she left the changing room again, Risa took out her phone and called her family’s chauffeur, telling him to pick them up and take them home.

Once they got into the car, Manaka looked around with wide eyes. “Whoa, I’ve never been in a car this nice.”

“Don’t say things like that,” Risa mumbled. “You’re supposed to be rich, right?”

“Ah, sorry.” Manaka nodded a bit apologetically. She comfortably leaned back in her seat and tried to make herself a plan for how to behave in Risa’s house.

Just before they got out of the car, Risa grabbed Manaka’s wrist to hold her back. “My mum should be at home, so we can talk to her about this. Don’t tell her your last name—but if she asks, say that you’re… a relative of the Sugai family.”

“So it’s gonna be a problem if my family’s not popular?”

Risa nodded. “My parents might try to find out things about your family if they don’t trust you, so you should say that your mother is related to the Sugai family.”

Manaka nodded in understanding and got out of the car, her eyes widening when she saw two more very expensive-looking cars and a door that looked more like some kind of gate and probably led to the house. “Wow, your house really is amazing…”

That earned her another glare from Risa, and the other girl dragged her along through the grand door and into a small room right behind it. There, she changed into more boyish clothes and hid her dress and the bag with Manaka’s clothes in a drawer. “They’ll get mad if I don’t do this,” she explained before checking herself in the mirror and looking Manaka up and down once more. “Good, we’re ready.”

After hesitating for a moment, Manaka took Risa’s hand and squeezed it slightly. “Guess we should do this if we want to seem like a couple.”

Risa blushed slightly, but gave her friend a small nod and then led the way to the living room where a woman was sitting, reading a newspaper. “Mum, I’m home.”

The woman put her newspaper down and looked up at them. “Ah, Risao—and…?” She questioningly raised an eyebrow towards Manaka.

“I wanted to introduce her to you, Mum,” Risa spoke up again. “This is the reason why I’d like you to call off the engagement you made for me. This is my girlfriend.”

Manaka bowed deeply, trying to appear as serious and trustworthy as possible. “My name is Manaka, it’s nice to meet you.”

Risa’s mother furrowed her eyebrows slightly. “Your girlfriend, Risao? Why have you never told us about this before? For how long has this been going on?”

The girls briefly glanced at each other. “A few months,” Risa then replied. “We met at school and immediately got along.”

There was a tiny, amused grin on Manaka’s lips that nearly gave away the fact that this was a lie, but she could keep herself in check just in time.

“What is your family name?” Risa’s mother turned to Manaka again, and the girl couldn’t help but feel relieved that Risa had warned her about this beforehand.

“It’s Shida,” she replied. “But my mother was born as a member of the Sugai family. She works for the Sugai Corporation.”

That seemed to intrigue Risa’s mother. She nodded slowly, her expression suddenly all business-like. “I will talk to my husband about this,” she announced, waving her hand a bit dismissively.

Before Risa could drag her out of the room, Manaka grinned and turned to kiss her friend’s cheek. “Yay! Isn’t that great, Risao-kun?”

Risa stiffened a bit, but nodded and then pulled Manaka out of the room. They walked through a long hallway and headed up some stairs before entering a room that looked like Risa’s bedroom. The older girl let out a small sigh as she sat down on her bed. “Why did you do that?”

“What?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

“Oh, come on. We needed to behave like a couple, right? And besides, it was just your cheek. Nothing too bad, right?”

Reluctantly, Risa nodded.

“So, did I do well down there? Your mum didn't get suspicious or anything, right?”

“She seems to believe you. But if they find out that you're not related to the Sugai family, we'll seriously be in trouble. It'll be worse than what we'll get for pretending to be a couple.”

Manaka jumped onto the bed as well, momentarily marveling at its softness, before tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. “What if it wasn't a lie?”

“Huh?”

“What if there was someone from the Sugai family who said that I was their relative? Your parents would believe that, wouldn't they?”

“There's nobody who would lie about that for you,” Risa shrugged the suggestion off. “Why are you doing all this, anyways? You should have other things to worry about.”

Manaka seriously shook her head. “Come on, we're best friends, right? Of course it bothers me that you're going to get married.”

“But with what we're doing right now, _you_ might end up having to marry me.”

For a moment, it was silent. Then, Manaka looked away in slight embarrassment. “Maybe… I wouldn't mind that. It definitely wouldn't be as bad as someone else marrying you, don't you think?”

Risa turned red. “...yeah, you have a point there,” she muttered. “But if your plan fails…”

“It won't!” Manaka exclaimed. “We'll succeed, somehow.”

A sigh left Risa's lips, then she nodded. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Again, it was silent between them. Both of them leaned back until they were lying on the bed with their legs hanging off the side lazily. Some minutes later, Manaka hesitantly reached out for Risa’s hand again, and much to her relief, the older girl didn’t pull away. For the time being, they were content enough just being with each other.


	2. Chapter 2

That evening, Manaka headed home late. She’d had dinner with Risa’s family, and she had come to understand why Risa didn’t get along with her parents as well as one would have expected. The older girl’s parents seemed to be very focused on their business; from what Manaka understood, they wouldn’t support a relationship purely because Risa loved the other person, but it would have to be beneficial for their business, as well.

Pretending to be Risa’s girlfriend for a day was much more fun than Manaka had thought it would be. She knew that there was something more serious than just some fun between two friends behind it, but in the end, she had enjoyed being so close to Risa quite a lot.

After dinner, Risa told the chauffeur to take Manaka home. She led the younger girl back to the garage and accompanied her on the way.

The car stopped a few streets from Manaka’s actual home because they wanted to avoid anyone realizing who Manaka really was. Before getting out of the car, Manaka turned to her friend once more. “Hey… today was fun, wasn’t it?”

At first, Risa didn’t reply, and Manaka already thought she was going to get some kind of tsundere remark (if she was going to get an answer at all), but then, the older girl nodded slightly. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Manaka hesitated briefly, but then leaned in and kissed Risa’s cheek like she had done in front of the older girl’s mother. “See you at school tomorrow, then,” she said and quickly opened the door to leave the car.

Risa simply stared at her, a little dumbfound, as she left. On the way back home, the rich girl was unconsciously humming to herself quietly. The melody was that of Manaka’s favorite song, a rock song which she had recently let Risa listen to. Risa had been quite surprised about that because usually, Manaka didn’t like letting people listen to the music she had saved on her phone; it was like the playlists were Manaka’s own world that she could retreat to if real-life people became too annoying for her.

In retrospect, now that she had the time to think about it properly, Risa realized that recently, Manaka had seemed to be trying harder to make her happy than before. The younger girl’s sensitivity when Risa talked to other girls also seemed to have gone up a bit—sometimes, Manaka would just interrupt their conversations by pulling Risa away.

Maybe she was starting to develop feelings for Risa, judging by the fact that she had kissed her best friend twice today, even if it was only on the cheek.

And maybe, Risa realized in surprise, she didn’t mind that. She had already been wondering if Manaka actually was serious about not minding having to marry Risa, and now that she was thinking about it, Risa thought that _yes_ , the other girl had probably been serious about it.

A familiar _ping_ made Risa snap out of her thoughts and when she took out her phone, she found a message from Manaka.

 **Mona:** _Forgot to ask you this earlier—wanna go on a date tomorrow? ^.^_

She really seemed to be in a good mood; usually, neither of them used emojis very much, so it was a bit of a surprise to see Manaka use one.

 **You:** _A date?_

Maybe that kind of reaction wasn’t exactly what Manaka had wanted to get, but on the other hand, the younger girl should be used to getting some tsundere reactions from Risa from time to time. And besides, Risa was too surprised about the use of the word _date_ to think about any other response.

 **Mona:** _Yeah. That thing where couples spend time together, you know?_

The reply sounded a bit sarcastic, but Risa could just imagine Manaka smiling about her reaction. Sending _We’re not a couple_ as a reply maybe was a bit harsh, but Risa did it anyways.

 **You:** _Why would we go on a date? We’re not a couple._

 **Mona:** _Then let’s just hang out at the arcade or somewhere and pretend it was a date. We gotta act like a couple, after all._

Risa sighed quietly, her eyebrows furrowing. She was just a bit reluctant to admit it, but Manaka was right; considering the spiral of lies and pretenses they had gotten themselves caught in now, they’d really have to watch out for their behavior.

 **You:** _Fine, I don’t mind._

Manaka’s next reply seemed a bit more cheerful, a fact that was supported by another cheerful emoji at the end of her message.

 **Mona:** _Yay! Then let’s just talk about where to go tomorrow. XD_

 **You:** _If you’re going to say that, why did you have to text me in the first place?_

For a moment, her phone was silent and Risa wondered if Manaka had already gone to bed now that she had gotten the reply she’d been waiting for. But then, she heard the ping of a new message arriving once more.

 **Mona:** _You’re gonna laugh at me tomorrow if I tell you._

 **You:** _Wrong. If it’s that funny, I’ll laugh at you now._

 **Mona:** _Idiot_

 **Mona:** _Idk if you understand that feeling, but it feels nice when you reply to my messages, so that’s why._

Another proof that confirmed Risa’s guess about Manaka liking her. Even if she would never admit it, Risa was glad about that. That was why, after hesitating for a moment, she sent a reply that said,

 **You:** _I guess I know what you mean._

 **Mona:** _^.^_

It seemed like Manaka really was in a good mood now, Risa thought, and then sent another message just as the car stopped in the garage of her house.

 **You:** _Go to bed now. It’s late after all._

 **Mona:** _Good night then~_

Risa read the message, but didn’t reply, assuming that Manaka would be happy enough if the message was marked as _Read_. Then, she got out of the car and headed into the house to go to bed as well.

 

* * *

 

On the next day, Manaka greeted Risa with a smile—something that she’d only rarely done before. Apparently, she really was in a great mood.

Their classmates started muttering among themselves again, and finally someone stepped forward. “Hey, Risao-kun.”

Risa raised an eyebrow slightly, gesturing for the girl to continue.

“Are you and Shida dating?”

When she heard that, Risa remembered how Manaka had climbed down the tree in the schoolyard just to avoid having to answer this question. But now, she supposed, their situation had changed. The older girl glanced over at Manaka who shrugged slightly, as if she wanted to say _Just say whatever you want_.

After considering her options for a moment, Risa nodded. “Yeah, we are.” She’d come to the conclusion that they should keep up this image just in case her parents ever decided to investigate at school if they were actually dating.

While Manaka’s smile widened a bit, the other girl’s expression turned a bit sour. “Why are you dating her? She doesn’t care for anyone, she’s just a boring—”

“I can see why she doesn’t care for you,” Risa cut the girl short and grabbed Manaka’s wrist to pull her along. “Let’s go, class is starting soon.”

Manaka followed her in slight surprise. “Risao—”

“Shut up.” Risa seriously seemed irritated now, and Manaka sighed, deciding to take the initiative.

She freed herself from Risa’s hold and grabbed the other girl’s wrist instead, pulling her to a secluded hallway. Once she was sure that nobody would hear them, she spoke up. “Risa, it’s fine. The others always talk about me like that, so I’m used to it.”

“It’s not fine.”

“But I don’t care. So stop worrying about me, okay? You don’t need to beat anyone up because of this.”

“Who said I was going to do that?”

Manaka couldn’t hold back a small chuckle. “You look like you were. But seriously, don’t do it. It’s okay. Cheer up a bit now, alright? It’ll just cause more trouble if you keep glaring at everyone like you wanted to kill them.”

Risa remained silent for a few moments. Then, looking away in slight embarrassment, she took Manaka’s hand.

The younger girl smiled a little. “Thanks. Now, go back to being the Risao-kun everyone knows so we don’t raise any suspicions, okay?”

 

* * *

 

What they didn’t know was that someone had been watching them. Their classmate Nagahama Neru, although she wasn’t very interested in either of them in any way, had followed them simply out of curiosity. Now that she had head Manaka call Risa by her real name, a knowing smile spread on her lips as she put together the small snippets of information that she’d gathered so far.

After class, she approached the two of them just before they could leave the classroom. “Risao-kun, can I talk to you for a bit? Don’t worry,” she added, smiling at Manaka. “I won’t try to steal your _boyfriend_ , Shida-san.” Neru’s smile widened a little when she saw Manaka’s eyes widen upon hearing the way she said the word _boyfriend_.

Risa, too, stiffened visibly. “Sorry, I’m not in the mood to talk to you right now. Besides, there’s somewhere I have to go—”

“But, Risa-san,” Neru interrupted her thoughtfully.

Both Risa and Manaka tensed up even more, exchanging an irritated glance.

“Fuck,” Manaka mumbled under her breath, and Risa thought to herself that she could not have expressed her thoughts any better.

Neru continued, knowing that she had the two of them under her control now. “Don’t you think the other students would be interested in hearing that you’re not Watanabe Risao?”

“How do you know?” Risa asked coldly, her hand clenching to a fist around the strap of her schoolbag.

“Oh, it’s obvious,” Neru replied a bit mockingly. “First of all, your behavior isn’t boyish enough. Second, I happened to overhear you and Shida-san talking this morning; she called you ‘Risa.’ And third…” The girl reached into the pocket of her school uniform and pulled an item out from it, holding it up so Risa could see it. “Don’t tell me you forgot about this.”

It was a bracelet, made from colorful plastic pearls. Four of them were white with black letters on them. _B_ , _E_ , _S_ , _T_.

Risa’s eyes widened when she remembered how Neru had gotten that bracelet—and how she herself had gotten a similar one with letters that read, _F_ , _R_ , _I_ , _E_ , _N_ , _D_ , _S_.

“Or maybe you did forget,” Neru mused, pulling Risa’s thoughts back to reality. “But it’s not like that matters. After all, the two of us can make many new memories together.”

“What—”

Suddenly, Neru turned to Manaka who had been watching them with increasing irritation and nervousness. “Did you know, Shida-san? That I’m the one Risa is supposed to marry.”

Risa stepped between her classmates, scowling at Neru. “Of course she didn’t know, it’s not like anyone told her. Hell, even _I_ didn’t know.”

“Oh, I know that. I asked your parents not to tell you that it’s me.” Neru sighed. “To think that you wouldn’t even show up for our date… For a while, I seriously thought you were Risao, you know. I thought marrying him would be enough to get close to you so I can get my revenge. You can’t imagine how happy I was to find out that I’m actually going to marry you and not just him.”

“I’m not listening to this nonsense any longer. Let’s go, Manaka.” Risa grabbed Manaka’s hand and started pulling her towards the door of the classroom when Neru suddenly spoke up again.

“Are you two really dating?”

For a moment, it was dead silent in the room. Then, Risa grabbed Manaka’s collar and pulled her closer, kissing her right on the lips. When she pulled back, her lips and cheeks reddened, she gave Neru a last glare before turning away. “We are.”


	3. Chapter 3

On their way to the train station, Manaka followed a step behind Risa, not really knowing what to say. She hadn’t known that Risa and Neru knew each other; they had barely interacted at school before, so this kind of reveal had come as a grand surprise to Manaka. “Risa…?”

Risa winced slightly and turned to look at her friend. “…sorry. I shouldn’t have ki—”

“What happened between you and Nagahama?”

Risa looked away again. She had managed to mostly forget about what had happened between her and Neru so many years ago, but the talk they’d just had with the other girl had brought the memories back with full force, and Risa didn’t like that at all. “Can I… tell you later?”

Manaka nodded slowly. “Fine,” she muttered, brushing her hand against Risa’s briefly. “And I don’t mind that you kissed me, just so you know.”

Risa managed a weak smile. “Then… I guess that's good.”

For a moment, they were silent; then, Manaka spoke up, deciding to try cheering Risa up. “Hey, do you wanna come home with me tonight? We could watch a movie together and order pizza or something.”

Risa considered the idea for a moment and then nodded. “That sounds nice.”

“Is that gonna be fine for your parents?”

“I don't care,” Risa huffed. “Let's just go.”

Manaka nodded and led the way to her apartment. She lived alone with minimal financial support from her parents, so her apartment wasn't very big, but there would be enough space for the two of them to comfortably spend the night together.

Risa switched her phone off and left it on the cupboard in the small hallway when they entered the apartment.

“Is that seriously going to be okay?” Manaka asked a bit skeptically, pointing at Risa’s phone. She didn't want to get accused of kidnapping Risa.

But the older girl nodded resolutely. “Yes. I need a break from them right now.”

“Okay.” Manaka gave her a slight nod and went ahead to the living room. “Make yourself comfortable. I'll just take off my school uniform.” As an afterthought, she added, “Do you want to borrow some more comfortable clothes? We should have about the same size, after all.”

“Thanks…”

“Don't worry about it.” Manaka gave her a smile and went to her bedroom, quickly changing out of her school uniform and into more comfortable clothes. Then she returned to the living room, bringing a T-shirt and a short pair of trousers with her for Risa.

Risa had sat down on the sofa and pulled her knees up against her chest.

Manaka sat down next to her and pulled her into a hug. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes closed, Risa leaned her head against Manaka's shoulder. “I never thought I'd find a friend like you.”

“Eh? What's wrong, you're suddenly talking so seriously…”

“Can we stop pretending to be dating?”

“What? Do you want to marry Nagahama after all, now that you know it's her?”

“No!” Risa exclaimed, her voice cracking a bit. She took a deep breath and finally mumbled, “I want to date you. For real.”

Manaka's eyes widened. “R-really?”

Risa nodded, averting her face again.

“I… I'm glad. I'd like that, Risa.”

The tiniest of smiles spread on Risa's face; she was clearly relieved. “Thanks.”

“Hey, you don't need to thank me for that,” Manaka elbowed her gently before leaning in for a kiss. “Who wouldn't want to date you?” When she heard Risa laugh bitterly, she quickly added, “I'm talking about the real you. You're much more amazing when you're yourself than when you're pretending to be Risao.”

Risa instinctively nuzzled against her a little. “You're the first one to ever say that.”

“But it's true. I'd choose you over both the real Risao and your fake Risao a hundred times, so…” Manaka turned a little red and trailed off, squeezing her girlfriend’s hand a little. “...anyways, what do you want to eat?”

“Let's order pizza, if that's okay?”

So they ordered pizza. Once their food arrived, Manaka motioned for Risa to stay seated on the sofa. “Let's eat here, that's more comfortable than the kitchen table.”

For a while, they ate in silence. When they were almost done, Risa spoke up again. “So… about Neru.”

Manaka perked up slightly, but then shook her head. “Wait, you don't have to tell me if you don't feel like it. As long as you don't really end up marrying her…”

“We used to be best friends,” Risa cut her short. “When we were children, you know. Our families were close friends, so we got along really well for years. And then, one day, when we were eleven… her family’s company went bankrupt. Some other rich kids in our class started bullying her, and I joined them. And Neru started hating me—she even blamed my family for her family going bankrupt.”

Manaka frowned and patted Risa’s hand reassuringly.

“Hey… no need to force yourself. If you're on her side now, it's fine,” Risa sighed. “After all, I was the one who started it.”

“No… I don't think you'd do that. I mean, maybe you did do it, but you're different now, right? You've never bullied anyone since we got to know each other.”

“It's been six years since the thing with Neru happened; I tried to forget about it. I never thought she'd come back for revenge _now_.”

Manaka reached over to squeeze Risa’s hand. “It'll be fine, won't it? If it's her… I'm sure we can find a way to cancel the engagement.”

Risa let out another sigh, but she didn’t feel like contradicting Manaka anymore. “…sure, we’ll find a way.”

The younger girl gave her a smile. “Good. Now let’s finish eating—and do you want to watch a movie then?”

They finished eating and cleaned the dishes together before Manaka led the way to her bedroom. She let Risa pick a movie and started it before joining the other girl on her bed.

They sat close next to each other, and eventually, Manaka felt a weight dropping on her shoulder. When she turned to look at Risa, she found the other girl resting her head on Manaka’s shoulder, her eyes closed. “Risa?”

There was no reply; Risa seemed to have fallen asleep even though the movie wasn’t over yet.

A fond smile on her lips, Manaka reached for the remote control and switched off the TV, trying not to move too much, before she shifted into a slightly more comfortable position and closed her eyes as well.

 

* * *

 

In the next morning, Manaka was the first to wake up. She sleepily sat up, and a small smile spread on her lips when she felt Risa’s weight dragging her back down onto the mattress. For a few more minutes, she watched the older girl sleep until she decided to wake her up. “Risa~, wake up, we have to go to school.”

With a groan, Risa flopped over, off Manaka, and she would have fallen off the bed if her girlfriend hadn’t grabbed her by the shoulders. “Manaka? Oh…” Slowly, she remembered what had happened on the previous day, and she couldn’t resist the urge to pull Manaka into a hug.

The younger girl let her do as she liked for a moment more, then she gently freed herself from the hug. “See, I certainly wouldn’t mind skipping school today, but that would probably get us into more trouble than we can afford at this point.”

Reluctantly, Risa nodded. She sat up properly and rubbed her eyes to get rid of the sleepiness a bit. “I don’t wanna go…”

“Because of Neru?”

Hearing that name made Risa’s expression darken. “Don’t mention her, okay?”

“Alright, alright.” Manaka patted the older girl’s back calmingly. “Still, we should get up. You can come back here with me after school if you want, how does that sound?”

Risa nodded and got up.

They put on their school uniforms and Manaka prepared a quick breakfast for them while Risa, who insisted on helping her out, got tasked with making a bento box for each of them. However, after Risa nearly cut her own fingers twice—she wasn’t used to cooking, after all—Manaka resolutely guided her over to the kitchen table, pushing her down onto one of the chairs.

“I don’t want you to accidentally kill yourself,” she strictly said. “I guess both your parents and Neru would kill me for that, so just wait until I’m done, okay?”

Risa huffed quietly, but she stayed where she was and let Manaka prepare their food.

After that, they ate quickly, and then they took the train to school. They sat next to each other, with Manaka occasionally resting her head on Risa’s shoulder. After they’d been so close with each other for the past year, it already felt natural for them to behave like this even if they had only confessed to one another on the day before.

Although they were silent, both of them felt very comfortable; it was like they were in their own world, in a bubble where none of the problems they had in reality could reach them.

However, that bubble burst the moment they entered the school building.

“So Risao-kun is really dating Shida now?”

“Eh, she’s so annoying! If it wasn’t for her, I’m sure I’d be Risao-kun’s girlfriend now!”

“She’s such a bitch, never caring for anyone, but as soon as there’s a handsome boy, she comes up and snatches him away from us.”

Risa’s eyebrow twitched upon hearing all those comments, but she took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm, remembering that Manaka had told her to ignore the rumors.

They made their way to their classroom without talking to anyone else, and they would have managed to sit down in their seats without any problems if it hadn’t been for Neru grabbing Risa’s wrist as they were walking past her.

“Good morning, Risa, Shida-san,” she greeted them with a smile, as if nothing had ever happened between the three of them.

“Leave us alone.” Risa pulled her hand from Neru’s hold and was about to go over to her own seat when the younger girl suddenly spoke up again.

“I’ll just have to break you two apart,” she mumbled quietly, but just loud enough for Manaka and Risa to hear. “I doubt that’ll be very hard. We’re basically married already, after all, Risa.”

Manaka hadn’t said anything at all since they’d entered the school building, but that comment ticked her off. “You’re not,” she coldly told Neru. “Right now, I’m a possible candidate, too.”

Neru’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh, are you?”

“Yes, I am. So it’s not going to be that easy for you.” With that, Manaka dragged Risa off to their seats and sat down, digging her phone out of her pocket.

Risa watched her in silence, not sure what to make of this. “Manaka, what…?”

“I’m making sure I keep being a suitable candidate,” Manaka mumbled through gritted teeth, scrolling through the contact list in her phone.

She was looking for the phone number of Sugai Yuuka, the sole heir to the Sugai Company. When she had lied about being related to the Sugai family, Manaka had remembered that, much to her own luck, she had actually met a member of that family a few days before her first meeting with Risa.

Sugai Yuuka had been out shopping on her own, and a man had wanted to force her to go home with him. When she had seen that, Manaka had thrown away all caution and punched the man until he left the two of them alone.

Afterwards, Yuuka had apologized for dragging Manaka into this, and she had given the other girl her phone number with the words, “If there’s ever something I can do to repay you, please give me a call.”

Until now, Manaka had refrained from doing that because she thought that what she’d done was nothing special; girls had to stick together, after all. But right now, the fact that Yuuka theoretically owed her a favor came in more than handy.

Once she had found the right number, Manaka tried to think of a text message that wouldn’t seem too obtrusive, just in case Yuuka didn’t remember their meeting. In the end, she settled with,

_Hello Sugai-san, this is Shida Manaka. Maybe you remember me; I’m the girl who saved you from that pervert a while ago. Actually I wasn’t planning on asking you to repay me for that, but right now, there’s something that I could really need your help with. So, would you mind meeting up with me in person sometime?_

A small sigh left her lips once she’d sent the message; that had been the first hurdle. Now they could only hope that Yuuka would agree to help them.

“So, what did you do just now?” Risa asked her when she saw her girlfriend put her phone back into her pocket.

Manaka leaned in a bit closer to make sure nobody would hear her. “I texted Sugai Yuuka.”

“Eh?!”

“Shh,” the younger girl hissed. “I met her a while ago, I saved her from a pervert who was trying to take her home. It was a coincidence, really. Anyways, she said to give her a call if I ever needed her help, so I sent her a text just now. If there’s anyone who can help me pretend to be a member of the Sugai family, it’s her.”

Risa nodded slowly; she knew that. Despite that, she would never have considered asking anyone from the Sugai family for help because she wasn’t particularly close with any of them. Deep down, however, she was feeling both relieved and surprised because Manaka had done the one thing she hadn’t thought of doing—maybe this would give them the chance to get one step ahead of Neru and whatever she was planning.

 

* * *

 

When she got a reply from Sugai Yuuka later that day, Manaka’s mood skyrocketed. She’d been sitting under a cherry tree and having lunch with Risa when a familiar _ping_ notified her that she’d received a message. The younger girl dug her phone out from her pocket and beamed at Risa. “It’s from Yuuka-san! She says she wouldn’t mind meeting up with us.”

Risa let out a small sigh of relief but then remembered that this didn’t mean anything yet. “Great. But that doesn’t mean she’ll end up helping us out.”

Manaka elbowed her girlfriend gently. “Shut up, don’t make me lose all hope. We’re on such a good way right now.”

“I’m not making you lose all hope, I’m just making sure you don’t forget about reality.” Risa stuck out her tongue and Manaka leaned in close to steal a brief kiss.

“I’m not forgetting about reality,” she mumbled into the older girl’s ear. “But I’m not in the mood to fight right now.” She quickly typed and sending a message thanking Yuuka and asking when they could meet, then she leaned against Risa again.

Risa managed the tiniest of smiles and put her arm around Manaka’s waist. “Same here.”

They stayed like that for a while, until a voice broke the peaceful bubble they’d just been sharing. “Now, don’t you two look cute together.”

Risa’s grip on Manaka’s waist tightened. “Neru, leave us alone.”

Neru made an innocent expression and stepped closer to them. “Aw, but I just got here. Can’t I have lunch with you?”

“No.” Manaka and Risa said that simultaneously, and if Neru hadn’t been there, Manaka would probably have laughed at that fact.

A sigh left Neru’s lips. “Fine, fine. But you do know that being so hostile towards me makes people dislike you, don’t you?”

“Yeah, and I don’t care.” Risa’s voice was still cold as ice, and her words were accompanied by Manaka’s affirmative nod.

For a moment, Neru simply stared at them. Then, she turned away with a shrug. “Alright. But don’t worry, I’ll find a way to break you two apart. I’ll have my revenge, and I’ll have the greatest fun in my life.” With that, she turned away and left the two of them alone.

Manaka sighed, burying her face in Risa’s shoulder. “I don’t like her anymore.”

“Have you ever?”

“…you’re right. No, I haven’t,” the younger girl admitted, grinning weakly. “More like, I never cared. But I really want to get rid of her now.”

Risa patted her back. “As much as I agree, I don’t think there’s any way for that to work out. We’ll have to rely on Sugai-san for now.”

“Yeah… that’s right.” Manaka nodded and closed her eyes, her head still resting against Risa’s shoulder. “Hey, can we do something together after school today? Maybe go shopping or something…”

“Okay,” Risa nodded, agreeing surprisingly quickly. “I don’t mind. I’ve been wanting to go shopping for a while already, so…”

A smile spread on Manaka’s lips and she happily squeezed Risa’s hand.


	4. Chapter 4

When the bell signaling the end of their classes rang, Manaka hurried to pack up her things and then jumped to her feet, stepping in front of Risa’s desk. “Hurry, Risao-kun~” she hummed excitedly while waiting for Risa to get ready as well.

Their classmates stared at her jealously, like they’d done it a lot in the past weeks, and one of them stepped closer to Manaka and Risa. “Are you and Risao-kun doing something together after school?”

Manaka sighed quietly, a bit annoyed because her classmates always had to interfere with everything. “None of your business,” she coolly stated. “Will you stop pestering us already?”

“But Risao-kun—”

“Risao-kun thinks she’s right,” Risa cut in, getting up and grabbing Manaka’s hand. “Let’s go, Manaka.”

Manaka followed her girlfriend eagerly, ignoring their classmates. She knew they were jealous and that meant that there were probably going to be even more rumors about her and Risa soon, but as long as they left her alone, she didn’t care. Rumors were easy to ignore most of the time, that was an experience she’d made during her time as the class’s rebel.

They made their way to the pedestrian area and started checking out the clothes stores. Manaka immediately found a cute dress that she offered to Risa. “Here, you should wear this!”

“Eh? No way, that's too girly…”

“You _are_ a girl, though. Come on, it'll look awesome on you,” Manaka encouraged her, and after a moment of hesitation, Risa agreed to try the dress on once. In return, the older girl picked a cool-looking, somewhat boyish outfit for Manaka, who easily agreed to try it on. They had a lot of fun just trying on all different kinds of clothes, and Manaka insisted on taking lots of selfies and photos of Risa to commemorate their date.

After shopping (Manaka left the store with a new pullover and Risa had bought a skirt that looked both cool and feminine at the same time), they went to a café. Both of them ordered cake and a cold drink, and they ended up feeding each other while Manaka grinned like she was having the best time of her life.

(They didn’t notice one of their classmates sitting down at a nearby table and filming them with her phone.)

When they finished their cakes, Manaka took out her wallet to pay for what she had ordered, but Risa took the wallet from her girlfriend’s hands and put it back into her bag. “Let me pay.”

“Eh? You don’t need to, Risa…”

“Let me pay,” the older girl insisted, and Manaka had learned when she was supposed to give up.

“Okay,” she submitted to Risa’s insistence and put her wallet back into its former place. “But it’ll be my treat next time, then.”

Risa shrugged slightly, but then nodded. “Fine.”

They left the café hand in hand, and after pondering about the thought for a few minutes, Risa asked, “Do you want to come to spend the night at my place? There’s this new video game that came out, and I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet, so maybe you’d like to try?”

Manaka smiled brightly and leaned in to kiss Risa’s cheek briefly. “You don’t even need to ask. Of course I’ll come along.”

A fond sigh left Risa’s lips. It seemed like Manaka was feeling overly affectionate today, but maybe she was just that happy to be going on a proper date with her girlfriend in the midst of all the chaos they were caught up in right now.

They took the train home; Risa wanted to stay away from her family for as long as possible, so she preferred not having to call their chauffeur. Manaka was happy with that, as well—she preferred being able to do whatever she wanted without having to pretend to be someone else, and she contently rested her head on Risa’s shoulder while they were on the train, ignoring the glances other people occasionally gave them.

When they arrived at Risa’s house, Manaka straightened up and tried to make the impression of a proper rich girl as they entered. This time, Risa just led the way to her room without even trying to talk to her parents. As they passed a maid, Risa told her to bring two portions of dinner to her room later and then opened the door for Manaka to enter first.

Once they were inside, she locked the door, letting out a sigh of relief. “If you want to borrow some more comfortable clothes, I don’t mind. We should have about the same size, right?”

“Right.” Manaka gave her a nod of affirmation and then considered the offer for a moment. “I guess I’d like to take you up on that offer.”

Risa nodded and went over to her wardrobe, taking out a shirt and leggings and tossing them over to her girlfriend. “Here you go. I’ll turn away if you want me to.”

Manaka grinned a little and shrugged. “Do whatever you want.” She quickly changed out of her school uniform and into the clothes Risa had given her before sitting down on Risa’s bed. “So, about that game you were talking about…”

“Be a bit patient, won’t you?” Risa muttered under her breath, hiding her smile. She went over to her TV and switched on the game console that was placed below it, putting the disc in and taking two controllers out of a drawer. Then she joined Manaka on the bed, handing the younger girl one of the controllers. “Here you go.”

As they played, Risa silently realized that the enthusiasm and focus Manaka put into the game actually made her look quite cute, although she would never have admitted that. Risa quickly figured out how to play the game and it didn’t take long for her to start winning her battles with Manaka, which made the younger girl groan repeatedly whenever she lost. After a while, Manaka threw her controller onto the bed with a groan. “Why are you so good at this? Didn’t you say you’d never played this game before?”

“Maybe you just suck at it?” Risa commented with a slight grin, leaning in to kiss her girlfriend briefly when she saw Manaka’s pout. “You’ll get better at it in time, I’m sure. Wanna go again?”

“So you can just beat me again? Nope,” Manaka stuck out her tongue and leaned over, basically lying down on top of her girlfriend. “Let’s do something else.”

Risa raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking of?”

“Hmm… I kinda feel like doing karaoke.”

With a small sigh, the older girl got up and looked through the drawer she kept her games in. Indeed, she discovered a karaoke game and two microphones that could be attached to the console. A wide grin spread on Manaka’s lips once Risa held up the game and the microphones, so Risa set up the game and handed her girlfriend one of the microphones.

They sang until the maid from before brought two plates of dinner to Risa’s room. As they ate, Manaka looked like she was in heaven. “Wow, this tastes amazing. Do you always get to eat food this awesome?”

“I guess I do…”

“Let me move in with you!” Manaka demanded, laughing. “No, just kidding. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t mind that, but your parents probably would, right?”

Risa tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “Uh… yeah, probably.”

For a while, they were quiet. Eventually, when a long yawn left Manaka’s lips, Risa suggested they should go to bed soon. She showed her girlfriend where the bathroom was and waited her to finish getting ready for bed, then the older girl went to the bathroom and took a quick shower herself.

When she came back to her room, Manaka was lying on the bed already, the blanket pulled up to her chin. “Come here, Risa~,” she mumbled, patting the mattress invitingly.

Risa switched off the lights and joined her, slipping under the blanket next to Manaka who immediately wrapped an arm around her. “You’re really in a good mood now, huh?”

“Yeah… I had a great time today.”

A small smile spread on Risa’s lips. “Good.”

 

* * *

 

Their good mood was gone in the next morning, as soon as they approached the school building. There were photographs plastered all over the front door, and it only took the girls a single glance to see that they were in all of those photos. There were photos of them kissing, of them feeding each other cake, of Risa wearing dresses.

Risa turned pale as soon as she discovered the latter, and she quickly tried to take them off before getting to the photos that showed her and Manaka together.

“These are… from yesterday,” Manaka slowly realized as she helped Risa take down the photos. “Someone must’ve followed us around… because these aren’t the ones I took.”

“Fuck,” Risa mumbled under her breath. “They saw me like that… it couldn’t have gone any worse.”

Manaka reached out to squeeze her girlfriend’s hand briefly, then she continued helping her to take down the photos. When they were done, they stuffed the photos into their bags and just stayed where they were for a moment. “So, Risa… what are we gonna do now?”

Risa seriously thought about that for a moment. Maybe they were still early enough to prevent most of the students from seeing the photos. Maybe they could still avoid getting into trouble if they didn’t talk about it. “Let’s… not say anything about it to anyone, okay?” she suggested. “Well, there’s something about this that I want to clear up, but other than that, let’s not talk about it.”

The younger girl nodded in agreement. She could understand why Risa had made that suggestion.

Walking close to each other and trying to seem as normal as possible, they headed to their classroom—and Manaka stopped in her tracks when she could see the board through the open door. “Maybe you should wait here for a moment—”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Manaka tried to stop her, but Risa had already taken a step forward; now she could see the board as well.

**_The Secret of Watanabe Risao and Risa_ **

Risa turned even paler, freezing in place for a few seconds.

Manaka hurried inside and quickly wiped the words off the board, trying to prevent as much damage as she could. But only after that did she realize that most of their classmates were already in the classroom and curiously chatting with each other while Neru was watching them with an amused expression.

“Oh, Shida!” one of the girls spoke up, jumping to her feet. “We have a few questions for you.”

Manaka defensively took a step back, only to bump into a desk that stood behind her. “Well, I don’t have any answers for you.”

“Aw, come on. Since you’re dating Risao-kun, I’m sure you do have answers. Who’s this Risa person?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Manaka shook her head.

“Eh~, but you were talking about her so much yesterday. Rin overheard it, you know,” the girl gestured at another one of their classmates. “Fine, if you’re not going to answer that one, then why was Risao-kun trying on girls’ dresses during your date? Did you talk him into something weird?”

Manaka scowled at her classmates deeply, glancing over at Risa briefly. “That’s none of your business,” she loudly declared, pushing the girls aside to make her way back to Risa.

Meanwhile, Risa was ignoring and pushing away anyone who tried to talk to her. She made her way over to Neru’s desk, dug the photos out of her bag, and slammed them down in front of her former friend. “Is this your work?!”

Neru curiously raised an eyebrow and picked up the photos to look at­ them. “No, I don’t know anything about this; I didn’t take these photos, if that’s what you mean. But since they’re really nice, may I keep them?”

“No!” Risa hissed, ripping the photos apart and dropping the shreds on Neru’s desk. “No, you can’t! Did anyone ask you any questions about me?”

The other girl tilted her head to the side, pretending to be thinking about Risa’s question. “Hm…”

“Neru, just—”

“They did,” Neru simply said, smiling a bit. “But I said I didn’t know anything. It’s more amusing if there’s rumors all over the place, after all.”

Manaka finally succeeded in making her way to Risa’s side and took ahold of her girlfriend’s hand, squeezing it in an attempt to calm her down. “Risa,” she mumbled into the older girl’s ear. “Calm down. It’s too late, there’s nothing we can do about it now, anyways, right?”

Feeling Manaka standing next to her, Risa took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her rage slowly subsiding. “…you’re right,” she muttered, giving Manaka’s hand a squeeze in return. “I hope this doesn’t get through to my parents.”

Manaka gently pulled Risa away from Neru’s desk, having the feeling that being around her former friend was making Risa feel even worse. “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. It’s not like anyone here knows your parents, right?”

Sighing, Risa nodded. “You have a point there. It’ll… probably be fine, I’m just worrying too much.”

Her girlfriend gave her a small smile and patted her shoulder reassuringly before sitting down at her own desk. “I’m sure that’s right.”

 

* * *

 

The day passed slowly, but during their lunch break, Manaka’s phone rang once, signaling the arrival of a message.

 **Sugai-san:** _Hello, Shida-san. I just wanted to notify you that there’s been a change in my schedule, so surprisingly, I’m going to be free this afternoon. If you feel like it, we could meet up then._

Once she read that, Manaka’s mood brightened a lot. She quickly showed her phone screen to Risa. “Can we meet her together today? Or do you have anything else to do?”

Risa thought about that for a moment, but then shook her head. “No, that should be fine. We can meet her together.”

Grinning, Manaka sent a text saying exactly that back to Yuuka. They agreed to meet in a café after school, and both Manaka and Risa were on pins and needles during their remaining classes. Afterwards, they left the school as fast as possible and made sure that nobody was following them this time as they made their way to the café Yuuka had suggested for their meeting place.

Yuuka was already sitting at a table for four people, and she got up to greet them when Manaka and Risa entered the café. “Ah, Shida-san! It’s nice to see you again. And… Risao-kun?” she said when she saw Risa, sounding clearly surprised. But after taking a closer look, she quickly corrected herself. “No, I apologize. I mistook you for someone else.”

Risa only nodded slightly. “I guess you met him before, huh… your guess wasn’t that far off, Sugai-san. I’m Risao’s twin sister, Watanabe Risa.”

“I see…” Yuuka nodded slowly, but she still looked a bit confused, so Risa sat down and quietly explained why she was dressing up as her own brother once she had made sure that nobody else could hear her.

“And actually, that’s not the whole story,” Manaka added when Risa had finished. “In fact, there’s something we need your help with, Sugai-san. It’s something only you can do… but if you say you can’t do it, we can understand that. We’ll find another way to solve the problem, in that case.”

Yuuka raised an eyebrow. “What is your problem, then?”

“In fact, Risa and me… we’re dating. It started off as a fake dating thing because her parents wanted her to marry someone else, and we wanted to avoid that… and because I’d never stand a chance against that other girl otherwise, I told Risa’s parents that I’m related to the Sugai family,” Manaka explained roughly, already knowing that she’d need to give Yuuka a few more details if she really wanted her help.

“So… your parents really want you to take on Risao-kun’s role,” Yuuka turned to Risa, and the short-haired girl nodded with a frown. “I can understand that you’re not happy about that. May I know who that other girl is?”

“…Nagahama Neru.”

Yuuka’s eyes widened slightly. “Didn’t the Nagahama family go bankrupt years ago?”

“They did. That’s why Neru wants to marry me; she thinks it was my family’s fault. Besides, I… I guess I kinda started bullying her after that happened, so she wants revenge.”

That explanation only seemed to increase Yuuka’s confusion. “I know that some people marry others because of their money, but marrying someone because you want revenge does sound a bit crazy to me… why would your parents agree to let her marry you, then?”

Risa let out a bitter laugh. “First of all, they’ve never liked me, so they’re probably glad to get rid of me. Second, seems like Neru’s been working hard to get at least some of her previous wealth back. I think she definitely has more money than someone like Manaka—”

“What do you mean, someone like me?” Manaka cut in, even though she knew that Risa wasn’t being serious. “Just kidding, I know you didn’t mean that.”

Risa gave her a wry smile and continued. “And third, Neru never told my parents what she’s planning. I’m not sure they even remember that I used to be friends with her. And Mum and Dad don’t listen to what I have to say, so there’s literally no way for me to get out of this unless I bring in a girlfriend who’s better than Neru. Which, frankly speaking, would be any girl in this country.”

Yuuka nodded to show that she understood. “I see. And what can I help you with?”

Manaka took a deep breath. “I know I’m probably asking a lot from you,” she started, “but if Risa’s parents ask someone from your family if I’m really related to you, can you please make sure they never find out that that’s a lie?”

For a few moments, it was silent between them, and Manaka and Risa fully expected Yuuka to say no. She seemed like a diligent person who wouldn’t want to lie about something as important as this, so their thoughts were already racing trying to find a different solution for their problem, when Yuuka suddenly spoke up again.

“I’ll try.”

“Eh?” Manaka gasped, thinking she had misheard Yuuka’s words. “You’ll do it?”

“You did help me back then, after all, Shida-san. That’s why it’s my turn to pay you back now.”

“No, it’s not about you paying me back… what I’m asking for is way more than what I did for you, isn’t it? You’ll have to make a lot of people lie…”

Yuuka shook her head, smiling softly. “May I know what kind of revenge it is that Nagahama-san wants?”

Risa shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t really know either. She was talking about breaking us apart… other than that, I have no idea. This morning, there were dangerous photos of us plastered all over the front door of our school, but it seems like that wasn’t Neru’s work.”

Manaka’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. “You believed her when she said that?”

“I’ve been friends with her for years, I think I can tell when she’s lying. She seemed genuinely surprised about the photos.”

“…okay then.” Manaka gave her a slow nod, deciding to believe Risa. She trusted her, after all, even if she didn’t think they should believe Neru so easily.

“I see,” Yuuka mumbled thoughtfully. “Well, I’ll do what I can, so I hope everything works out for you two.”

Manaka and Risa smiled at her in relief. The three of them chatted for a bit more, then they left the café and headed home. Manaka pressed a brief kiss to Risa’s cheek when they separated, and that night, after she’d fallen asleep, she dreamed of herself and Risa enjoying their time together without having to worry about anything.


End file.
